Resistance
by dezagirl
Summary: The Resisty isn't so pitiful anymore. With a fleet of Irken ships at their disposal, an intelligent Earthling and a rather egotistical but crafty Irken, could they possibly take down the Irken Empire? A/U? Alternate Timeline? You decide.
1. Chapter 1

Resistance

CHAPTER ONE- Retrieval

A/N- Please, please, pleaaaaaaase take note that the first part Chapter One of this story was already included in my story Hatred. The first part of chapter one will serve as a quick 'flashfoward' if you will. The rest of this story will be a prologue, and it will reach a point in which it finally gets to the present.

Thank you! Also, thank you to all of my reviewers for my other story. It will be continued, just...in a different route. Eheh. And, ah, anyways, enjoy!

...

The raven-haired teen groaned as he plummeted onto his face. The sickly smell of acid, vomit and some _other_ scent plagued his nostrils. Barely lifting his head up, the sight of plumes of smoke remained in his pupils. Slowly rising up, he swiveled around.

_Zim._

Oh, he was expecting this. He was definitely expecting to see Zim.

What was surprising was that Zim didn't have his huge laser aimed at his face.

Instead, the boy had it aimed toward the two towering aliens scowling downwards. Dib's thoughts were interrupted momentarily as he wiped something wet from his face. Blood. How did-…

Zim gave a large sigh. He was no longer short- instead he was maybe 5'11, the height of an average teenager. His red eyes were transfixed to those of one of his leaders. They were dripping with hatred.

Zim turned around quickly, now glaring at Dib with his eyes full of hatred. "Pitiful," he hissed, "pitiful planet." He gave a sadistic-looking grin. "Why do you like Earth anyway?" Swaying from side to side, looking ready to die, he spoke calmly- "It's full of idiots like you. But then again, I heard misery likes company." He was now staring at him, looking angry. "Is that why I'm here? Which one of us is misery and which one is just _there_?" He was now breathing hard. Turning around yet again, he hit one of the tallest in the head with the butt of his gun-like laser. The other, the one who hadn't been hit, slowly backed away, eventually turning his heel and running.

The tallest who had been hit was now glaring up with dark red eyes, popped on an elbow, his legs in the fetal position. Crimson trickled from his temple. He was bleeding.

"Do you honestly believe you could've hidden it from me forever?" he asked the man calmly. He gave an evil smile. "You know, I wasn't that big of an idiot, and let me just say that Irk's computer firewalls aren't that great." He gave a wicked grin yet again. "You hated me. I was a failure from the beginning. If anyone knew…you didn't want that, did you?" His face was twisted, as if he were about to be sick. "You wanted to see if I was worthy. And since I wasn't good enough, you didn't tell me. You just sent me to this forsaken planet to _die_. To wither and cry for you and _die_." The tallest was beginning to cough blood, not even caring enough to wipe it from the corner of his mouth.

"No," Zim happily concluded, "you hated me. " He looked down. "But unlike some, I have no love for my _father." _He spat, as if disgusted.

The laser shot an earth-shaking ray at the tallest.

"Bye."

…

The red-eyed alien was crouched in a protective position over the ship's controls.

His voice was hoarse and sleep-deprived, and came out in a strained whisper. "Computer."

The computer's AI leapt to life with a beep. "Zim," it stated rather obviously.

"Did you run the system check?" he asked softly, his bold voice gone.

"I did," the computer replied. "All systems are running up to standards. Is there anything you require?" it implored, robotic voice steady.

At first, the alien hesitated; his hand hovered over the panels, and his eyes were half-shut, as if trying to forget something. Finally his voice replied rather unsure, with a hint of agony. "Yes," he murmured.

"And that is?" the computer asked patiently.

"...Contact the Resisty," Zim muttered. "I also need you to send out a retrieval ship."

The computer waited patiently for an explanation, but got nothing, as it was used to. After a few seconds, it finally spoke. "I need to know what the destination is. I also need the information abo-"

"I know," the alien snapped irritably, hand clenching unintentionally. "Destination: Earth. You know the coordinates. Use the ship with the largest storage capacity, please."

While the computer would've usually reacted with shock at the word 'please', he was considerably less surprised as of late. His master's behavior had became erratic, melancholic, and noticeably less egotistical.

"Ship number two," the computer replied. "Very well. Ship is in good shape and no repairs are needed. Ready to launch." After a short pause, it spoke yet again. "Sir, who should I send for?"

At that question, a dull silence filled the ship. The air was thick, and Zim seemed to pause for a moment, as if he was at loss for words.

Finally, his reply came reluctantly, touched with embarrassment. "Send...send for Dib."

The computer paused yet again. Now, that was unexpected, but he complied. "Anything else, sir?"

Zim sighed. "Have you installed the AI in ship number two?"

"Fully functional," came the monotonous reply.

"Very well, then. Please record a message stating that he needs to load all of his equipment onto the cargo hold. Instruct the ship to aid with that."

Another pause, and then a timid response. "Er, sir, I don't believe that Dib would be willing to do that."

Zim's voice was brought fully to life, anger and ego filling it. "Tell him if he doesn't his life is at great stake."

"And if that doesn't work?"

Zim groaned. "If that doesn't work then give me a direct video connection to him and I'll yell at him."

"...Do you really think that approach will work?" the computer asked.

"I'll yell...very loudly."

The computer sighed. "Alright, then. I'll send the ship."

Red eyes flickered to gray panels, left of him. "Wait," he snapped.

Irritation filled the computer. "What?" it asked.

"Make the ship go as quickly as it can. I honestly don't care if it burns up in hyperspace, just make sure the cargo gets here safely."

The computer sighed again, something common for it to do as of late. "Very well. Ship two is launching."

Zim merely nodded.

…

It was a very rude awakening for Dib Membrane.

To reiterate that- Dib's experiences included having an Irken ship crash through his bedroom, and he had woke up later to find his room a disaster area, a smoking hole in his alarm clock.

He had waken to find Gaz throwing rotten pizza into his room as punishment for not getting Bloaty's for supper.

He had also woke, once, to find a very strange and frightening girl from school staring at him hungrily.

He had never, however, heard an AI screech at him as if the world were ending. He had, however, read many science fiction books, and all of them told him this was a very bad thing.

As such, he flew up in his bed, head facing an extremely large dark purple ship, propelled upwards by large metal tentacles.

Normal reactions would range from a full-on panic attack to a very disturbing mental image to yellow pants. However, Dib managed to remain calm and keep a reign on his bladder functions.

"...Hello," he spoke against the screeching ship.

"Dib, you are awake. I am the computer of this ship! You can call me Dave." Its voice was rather cheery, a stark contrast to its appearance.

"...Dave." After pondering this a minute, he decided to reply. "Why...are you here?"

"I am here to retrieve you!" it said happily. "I'm quite satisfied with my job. Do you want some tea?"

"No, thank yo-wait, _what_?" the human asked, the full impact of the statement hitting him.

"Yes, tea is available!" it chirruped happily.

"No, not that part! The retrieval part." Dib now had a pounding headache, and was struggling to keep from crying in part frustration and part fear.

"Oh, yes. Er, someone named Zim has sent for you! And for all of your scientific...things! I'm supposed to fly you through space and stuff! Oh, and I can give you tea while we're on our way."

"Enough with the tea!" Dib snapped. "What does this 'Zim' look like?"

"Short, egotistical, red eyes, short," it replied cheerily.

"You said short twice," Dib muttered. "And...why would my arch-nemesis want to retrieve me?"

"Perhaps he would want to feed your brainmeats to his robot!" Dave replied rather happily, causing Dib to cringe. It then laughed. "Haha! Jokinggg! No, he sent for you because..."

"...Because...?" Dib inquired.

"Because he said if you didn't you were gonna die." The ship stated this rather matter-of-factly.

Dib's eyes narrowed. "And if I _do_ go, I'm going to die anyways. Is that correct?"

If Dave could have nodded, he would've. "Perhaps!" he replied cheerily. "I don't believe so, though, unless Zim is lying and he's planning on killing you. But even if he is, at least you get to drink tea on the way the-"

"Yes, yes, the tea!" Dib shouted, agitated. "I don't believe you. Forget this. Tell him I'm not going to-"

At that, a loud beep resounded and a holographic screen popped in front of Dib.

"If you're listening to this, it means you're an even bigger idiot then I previously thought and that your stinky human brain can't comprehend that if you stay on Earth you will die. You probably don't believe that. That is because it's a lie. However, I do need your filthy disgusting muddy filthy hu-man 'halllllp'. I have asked humans for assistance before when I was in desperate need of snacks, and they replied with me to call a 'wahmbulance'. I do not know what this 'wahmbulance' is nor what its purpose is, but if you reply as such I will kill you with the laser equipped on this ship. I am currently on my main ship, and this is a retrieval ship, if you haven't already figured that out. In all, Zim is telling you to COME!"

The voice then faded out.

Yes, Dib muttered to himself, that was indeed Zim's voice. And, besides, this would be a good chance for inter-galactic travel.

"Okay," he muttered. "Load up my stuff. It's downstairs."

"Oh, fun!" Dave replied. "That would give me utter satisfaction! Say, after that, would you like some tea-"

"NO," Dib yelled in reply.

...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two- Universal Physics

A/N- Oh, dear. PLOT OH MY. All will be explained in due time, I promise. So if the answers don't come immediately or something I've written seems like insane troll logic, please, I will explain in later chapters. Thanks to all my readers! Also, I personally like the next chapter more than this one. As I'm typing this, I have about...a page of the next done XD

...

The ship's engines whirred dully, a black cat darting across the floor.

The Irken couldn't help but smile, dark purple eyes closing. Spider-like fingers wrapped around a control, and spun the ship leftwards. The cat was not knocked off balance; it merely continued dashing around. Her boot ground into the metal floor as the ship flew faster.

Her ship was marked for utter destruction, no hope for life against the Irken militia, and yet she couldn't do anything but chuckle dryly. For there was no hope, and what else could she do?

So she laughed, and laughed.

And then she spotted a familiar blue-and-green planet.

...

"I hope your enjoying the Vortian engines we installed in your ship," the Resisty leader spoke cheerily into the camera. "In fact, the engines are traveling at almost five times the normal speed of Irken engines," Lard Nar declared triumphantly, eyes reflecting the chrome controls of his own ship. The video connection was surprisingly clear, which was a relief to Zim. Maintaining a decent video connection over light-years' distances was usually difficult.

"...Yes, that's impressive," the Computer conceded as Zim's ship made a 'shrrrk' sound, emitting from the loading dock.

"I MADE _SNACKS!" _Gir exclaimed, coming from the loading dock. The Computer groaned.

Zim turned around, a look of irritation sweeping across his facial features. His hand quickly shut off the video connection, amidst shouts of 'WAIT!' from the Vortian Resisty commander. "Where have you been?"

"He _was _locked up in the loading dock. Good things never last," the Computer muttered forlornly.

"Indeed," Zim conceded. "Like the time when Ship two's vocal device was removed. Too bad that didn't last long," he hissed.

"I have no clue how in the world he 'coalesced' binary code to overdrive the main system," the Computer murmured.

"I have no clue what that even _means._" Zim straightened his Irken military uniform before rising from his chair. He turned his heel, boots precisely moving, stature short but hopefully intimidating. His eyes narrowed, red orbs slitting into angry lines, preparing for the human to enter.

The loading dock made a final 'shrrk' before the door opened, revealing the human. His face was stern, and he looked none too amused.

Zim gave a wicked smile, still remaining in the hopefully threatening position.

Dib was not impressed by his show, and merely rolled his eyes. "Nice to see you, alien filth. And by 'nice to see you' I mean 'I can't wait to get your autopsy video named after me'."

"Zim thinks you are being pretentious!" Zim snapped, quickly switching to third-person. "Besides, puny earthling, that is rather unlikely. You are on an Irken ship, get it?" He yanked up on his gloves, tightening their grasp on his small arms.

The human sighed, brushing his hair from his glasses. "Okay, enough with the chit-chat. Why am I here?"

Zim groaned inwardly at the boy's confidence. It didn't help that the boy had now grown what seemed like a whole foot, which was subsequently one foot taller than Zim (probably a bit more then that), and the fact that he looked like as if he had better things to do.

As such, the alien paused for a moment, savoring the feeling of keeping a secret. "Who knows? You tell me.."

Of course, he knew this would irk Dib immensely. The boy incessantly searched for answers to anything.

Eventually, Dib's reply came. "I have no clue, Zim. You're the one who called _my _house- no, not called, excuse me, woke me up in the middle of the night with a potentially insane ship AI...so I suggest you please tell me what is going on."

"Or what?" Zim asked, holding back a grin at the boy's annoyed expression.

"Or..I'll... cause havoc on your ship." The boy's confidence was now back, his mouth in a firm line.

Zim chuckled. "Do it, then. Zim will fling you from the air lock into the deep vacuum of space."

Dib visibly shuddered. "Nevermind," he muttered, thoroughly frightened by the prospect.

The alien's face shifted from an amused expression to a serious one. "Zim requires your...assistance. Have you perhaps heard of the...Resisty?" he asked rather calmly. As it were, he was struggling to keep his ego in check, and trying desperately to prevent himself from screwing up his mission. He stared at Dib, face twisted in a rather sick expression.

"That is an incredibly stupid name," Dib remarked. "Sounds like something you would make up."

"Yeah, I kno-hey, _what_?" Zim snapped, eyes narrowing. "Whatever. Zim will ignore that, filthy human. Now answer the question!" His arms quickly crossed.

Dib yawned, stretching a bit before sighing. "No. Why?"

"It's an alliance resisting the Irken empire," Zim replied, flicking on a control. "This ship is currently on it's way to the Resisty's headquarters. We will become soldiers of the Resisty."

At this, Dib's skin paled more, if even possible. He looked faintly queasy. "_We?_" he shakily spoke, shuddering. "You can't be serious!"

"You have no choice," Zim snapped. "Zim commands you, or you'll be thrown out the airlock."

"A pity I didn't even bring my towel," Dib muttered dryly.

"..What? Are you mocking Zim?" the alien snapped, fists clenching.

"No," Dib replied. "I'm not. And I suppose you didn't make any sort of plan?" After a short pause, he asked desperately, "at _all?_" He waited for a response, looking less than pleased with the situation. Gir was currently behind Dib, trying pitifully to glue something to the boy's trench coat. Gir succeeded, gave a happy whoop and ran back to the loading dock, presumably to raise a rubber piggy army.

"Er...that's what you're for. Once we get there." Zim admitted.

Dib gave a hefty sigh. "Okay, that's wonderful. So how long until we get there?"

Zim shrugged. "It depends. If we're indeed traveling at 3,000 SLA, according to Vortian measurement systems, we'll arrive at about seven glorks in Irken time."

"Get used to measuring your time in something besides 'glorks'," Dib snapped. "You're a traitor now to the Irken empire, if I'm hearing you correctly. What is it in Earth time?"

Zim shrugged. "This is an Irken ship. It doesn't measure pitiful Earth hours. However, I'd expect it would take around...an hour?" he asked himself, thinking for a moment. He nodded, and continued. "Yes, about an hour."

The human nodded, taking the co-pilot's seat. Zim stared for a moment before taking his own position in the pilot's seat.

A pale hand shakily rose from beneath the black trench-coat to reveal a small blue device. Dib carefully handed it to the Irken with extreme care.

The alien's interest was piqued. "What is this?" he asked, studying it intently.

"It has a message on it from a fellow agent. Mothman."

"And you said the Resisty was a stupid name," Zim muttered, pressing the 'on' button.

…

"_I will not be left on this forsaken planet!_" Gaz shrieked, throwing a nearby can of Poop-Cola at the wall.

Her brother Dib was off on an intergalactic excursion, far away from this planet. Her father was busy being in denial about alien life forms. Her schoolmates were busy being as humanly stupid as possible.

She quickly deduced something had gone amok when Dib wasn't up at five in the morning ranting about an alien sighting. It became even more obvious that something was wrong when she found that the contents of his entire lab were missing. It was either murder (presumably by Zim, she thought sarcastically) or he'd done something incredibly stupid.

It turned out to be the latter.

"Good job, Dib. Abandon me on this _stupid_-" at that, she flung a book down- "_planet._" she hissed under her breath. "I WILL RAIN DOOM UPON YOUR HEAD," she avowed, voice laced with hatred.

"_DAD!_" she yelled.

The effort was futile. Her father was over three hundred miles away, studying different types of nuclear fuel.

Gaz gave a heavy sigh and sat down into a chair.

She then grinned.

"No Dib, no bother. I can play my GameSlave whenever I want...without...INTERRUPTION!"

Gaz was an extremely happy girl that day.

…

...

The blood, the blood.

It was so beautiful, the Irken thought to herself. Such a beautiful thing, wasted on such ugly and stupid creatures. Splotches, painted like flowers against the dark green 'grass'. She started with the school. The children ran. She ran quicker, and caught them, and tortured them, and what fun it was on Earth.

Spindly PAK-legs, crisscrossing the air faster than anything they'd seen before, soon killing them. Silver flashes made red splashes against pale skin, and screams resounded against the once empty air.

One girl merely sat and watched, a video camera in one hand and a faint look of boredom in her eyes. The Irken resolved to get to her later.

The Irken knew she would have fun with this planet up until its very last minute.

…

"Dib?"

The human's chest rose slowly, spasming and then falling with every breath. The alien watched intently for a moment before his irritation overwhelmed him. He spoke louder; "DIB?"

The boy's eyes snapped open, partially alert. "Yes?" he asked, mildly irritated.

Zim gave a tense smile. "We're on an undercover mission for the Irken empire. We are to infiltrate the Resisty and find out vital information."

Dib rubbed his eyes. " So, in short, you _lied. _I'm still stuck on a ship with _you. _It hardly makes a difference _why._"

Zim merely shrugged, still facing the control screen. "That just shows," he murmured pleasantly, "how stupid you silly Earth-humans are. I thought you'd be able to detect a lie when you heard one."

Dib shrugged back, situating himself in the metal chair. He faced away from Zim, now, trying vainly to lull himself back to sleep. "I guess you're a good liar, then," he spat venomously. "Good for you. That might come in handy later."

Zim beamed, taking the comment at face value and assuming it was a compliment. "Why, thank you, Dib-beast," he replied pleasantly.

This was going wonderfully.

…

"Zim?" Dib asked calmly.

"Yes?" the alien replied. It was exactly 2 AM in Earth time, and Dib was very tired.

"You're acting weird," he snapped.

Zim shrugged. "Yes, well."

"You seem...calmer. Or depressed, I don't know which."

Zim snapped irritably. "It's none of your business, Dib-stink. Who's ship is this?"

The human groaned. "That has no relevance to the conversation, but whatever."

"...The Tallest informed me that my mission on Earth was, er, false, if you will."

It was quiet for a moment as Dib sat, mouth partially agape. Of course, he'd always suspected it, but he had never anticipated Zim's leaders actually informing him of this.

"...But, it's okay," he concluded, "because they said I'd proven myself worthy to infiltrate the Resisty! I knew they'd come to their senses."

Dib merely frowned and stared at the ship's tiling.

Much later, when Zim's Pak was connecting to the computers, sparks flying off, Dib whispered something under his breath.

"Suicide mission."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three-

A/N- Hayyy~ :D Okay, so I've noticed a lot of favorites from people, but no reviews. ;_; Please, if you like the story, review. Or, if you want it to explode into a fiery ball of oblivion, review it. Or, y'know, if you're just bored and slightly sick and want to yell, review it. With that being said, please review!

FEATURING AWESOME!KEEF AND OTHER NONSENSE. Note- the babel fish part in this chapter is taken from the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (I added the diurnal part ;) and, note, in the original text the fish was put in the ear. I used this so I wouldn't have to explain how in the world Dib was breathing on a loading dock...in outer space...XD (although the show didn't seem to concerned with that aspect)

...

A threat was uttered from her lips

and then

they crashed down.

A smile of satisfaction, a boot twirling and more death.

…

"So you're positive this will work," the faceless shadow asked, spider-like appendages thin and barely visible.

"I...think so," the Tallest murmured.

…

The base is so empty.

It's silence, Skoodge thought to himself. Silence that was so disconcerting, silence that frightened him more than the screams. Zim is gone, where is he, he whispers hoarsely but nobody hears-

nobody will ever hear, he realizes-

and so he looks to the dead computer, its AI having been transferred to something else, and he realizes he is completely and utterly alone.

There is still hope, he whispers. Zim is just a small part of his life. But then he realizes that he depends on Zim, and that Zim gave him a house and work to do. He realizes that without Zim, he has no direction. The worst part, though, was that without Zim, there was only silence.

There is still hope, though, he reminds himself. There is still hope because, under all that egotistical jargon and incredible stupidity lay a mind full of none other than engineering genius. Engineering genius that was up to par with the Vortians'. Zim was actually intelligent.

And Skoodge knew this because two days after he'd moved in, Zim began to teach him.

There is still hope because there is still a ship in the loading bay, and still at least one human who isn't a complete idiot, and there are schematics to a Vortian engine lying right beside him, and he will build this if it kills him.

…

"Wake up," Zim hissed.

His Pak had came to life, sparks flying from the dark wires. He was now fully recharged, and seemingly quite irritated already.

The human groaned. "I _am_ up," he snapped, rubbing his eyes. Zim merely rolled his eyes in a rather human gesture, his gloved right hand flickering quickly over the controls. "The coordinates are set for the Resisty headquarters," he informed Dib. "We're only about ten Earth-minutes away. Oh, and here's your stupid Mothman-thing back," Zim spoke off-handedly, almost flinging the thing at Dib.

Luckily, he caught it. "So, what do you think?" he asked rather timidly.

"Think of what?" Zim asked, eyes squinting.

"Mothman's message," Dib replied, pocketing the device.

"Zim thinks it is stupid. Why would Zim consent to having his...squeedily-spooch forcibly removed?"

"...It's for science," Dib replied, as if that explained everything.

"Zim's squeedily-spooch will remain intact, thank you very much," Zim snapped back. "Maybe you hu-mans can study the effect of an Irken's organs working _correctly _with _none of them missing. _You know, for _science._"

Dib rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he muttered bitterly.

"Anyways, Zim needs you to eat this fish." Zim held an orange fish, white and black splotches on it.

Dib looked at Zim, quirking an eyebrow at the...raw...fish.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A Babel/Diurnal fish breed, from the planet Serphani. Eat it so you won't die in the vacuum of space too immediately. It'll allow you to filter the void as air. The Babel aspect will allow you to understand the languages other aliens speak."

"That makes no sense," Dib said.

Zim shrugged. "Zim doesn't know how it works either. Eat up."

Dib sighed, plopping the thing down his throat. He almost threw up, but kept it down. Zim nodded. "Good."

Dib grimaced at the taste, and merely looked towards the glass encasement of the ship, only to be shocked by the view.

Dib's eyes snapped completely open, and he seemed entranced. He leaned almost three feet forward from his seat staring at the image; a distinctly dark blue dock that seemed as if it were from a science fiction show. It's color stood stark in contrast to the void of space, and he could spot vaguely human-like figures walking on the flat surface close to the docking bay.

"...It's beautiful," he whispered, and he resisted the strange urge to sing from pure joy in Klingon.

…

The light shone from the cafeteria's ceiling lights, refracting off the steel-like encasing of the PAK legs. Dark purple eyes shone with bloodlust. The children backed into their respective corners, terror marking their faces as mortal and doomed.

The stench of a hundred sweaty, frightened schoolchildren made the smell of the cafeteria even stronger, and nausea-inducing at its worse.

Some watched the slaughter with horror. Others tried to look away from their inevitable fates. But one watched; not with horror, nor fright, but morbid fascination and curiosity. This boy, ginger-haired, did not ask "why me?" but simply "Why?" with a ridiculous knowledge-seeking urge.

The Irken noticed this as her eyes scanned, and she stared at him.

"Come here," she barked.

He obliged.

…

"_EXPLAIN YOURSELF_!"

Gaz had entered Zim's former base looking for answers and had found the short invader Skoodge, someone she'd only briefly met a few times before. Upon sighting him, she grabbed his shoulders forcibly.

Of course, it wasn't very likely that Skoodge knew anything. (He didn't.) However, Gaz was angry, and what with her brother being swiftly taken into the night by some sort of mecha, rationality wasn't exactly the most important thing to her just then.

"IDIDN'TDOITIDIDN'TBREAKIT_I'MSORRY!_" Skoodge shrieked in an almost knee-jerk reaction, trying to pull away from Gaz's grip.

Gaz's facial expression changed to one of calm; well, calm for Gaz, anyways. "Okay. Chill out." She felt slightly sorry for the invader; while she hardly felt any sympathy for most people, she'd seen the rather short invader be bullied by Zim in a number of ways.

"I'm sorry! I didn't do it! I didn't-" Skoodge began, only to be cut off rudely.

"Listen, I'm not here to blame you for something. I want to know where Zim went. And where he took my..._stoopid _brother." Gaz cringed at the word.

"...Why?" Skoodge asked, causing Gaz's eye to twitch.

"He owes me twenty dollars," she replied, shrugging afterward.

"Oh. Okay." Skoodge nodded at this as Gaz released him from her grasp.

"Well, then, how are we going to get there?" she asked expectantly, crossing her arms.

A smile flitted over the alien's features.

"Just give me a few days."

…

The boy was strange.

She'd seen him before at school, his eyes perpetually shifting, as if something were about to attack him at any moment. He was always nervous, and Tak suspected that he had a mental illness such as schizophrenia, or at the very least extreme paranoia.

As such, she took him from the disgusting lunch room and stared at him.

"What is your name?" she asked, although she already knew the answer.

"Keef." The ginger was staring back unflinchingly. "You killed them."

Tak's eyes opened at the accusation. "Who?" She was intrigued by the boy's odd mannerisms.

"Dib. Zim. You killed them, didn't you?" The calm in his eyes was replaced by madness; the light struck him, illuminating his face in the same way it had Tak's minutes ago.

"I have no clue what you're talking abou-" Tak began, not having seen the boys.

Almost instantly, the boy's hand snapped forwards and ripped off one of her multiple metal PAK legs; the sheer force of the yank pulled her forward a bit. His stance strong, he lunged forward with it, stabbing her in the chest and pulling the metal back out in such a harsh way that the pain flooded through her entire body.

She coughed a dark purple liquid; he ran, PAK leg still in hand as a makeshift weapon.

"...What in the bloody hell was that?" she sputtered out as her PAK healed her injury.

…

Sanctuary. Sanctuary. Sanctuary. He needed a place to hide.

…

Skoodge was looking at his schematics in a curious way, doodling this and that on it. Gaz was sitting nearby with a Poop-Cola in hand, playing her Gameslave. "How's it going?" she asked, finding the small Irken substantially less annoying then she'd thought. "Good," he replied. "I just made some adjustments to the blueprints, darkened the lines a little to make it clearer is all. I can modify an Irken engine for this instead of getting completely new parts..."

A loud banging came from upstairs.

Skoodge froze, and Gaz looked up from her Gameslave. "I'll get it-" he began, only for her to cut him off, stand up, and walk upstairs.

She opened the door to reveal Keef, holding a spindly metal leg and looking much calmer than usual, his frizzy hair mussed down by the rain.

"...Come in?" she asked. He nodded, and followed her downstairs.

…

"Zim, this dock is amazing."

Zim frowned. "Not nearly as amazing as the IRKE-"

At that, Dib kicked him. "Idiot! Remember why you're here in the first place!"

Zim's eyes opened wide in realization and he shut up, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Zim knew that," he muttered. "Zim was going to say...Irket..lian...donuts."

Dib rolled his eyes in a distinctly Earthling gesture before continuing his venture on the docking bay, their ship parked to the left. He was stopped by a Vortian; Lard Nar.

"You must be the human Zim was telling us about!" he said. He then looked Dib up and down, confused. "You don't look nearly as filthy as he said, though." He gave a smile. "Well, that's fine! You seem so much saner than the visitors we had last year..."

"Hm?" Dib asked, interested.

"...They believed in _string theory! _Haha! Can you believe that?"

After that statement, Dib and the Vortian Resisty leader began discussing quantum physics, universal properties, dark matter, and Life, the Universe and Everything.

Zim sighed, shaking his head before continuing into the headquarters of the Resisty.

It was indeed impressive, even by Irken standards. The architecture was astounding, the engineering was fantastic, and among all else it was non-stationary. The entire headquarters could be moved; it was, in theory, a super-ship. The Vortian engineering showed, and the entire structure held aspects of multiple species' designs. While Zim usually claimed Irk had 'the greatest everything', the ridiculous beauty of the inter-galactic collaboration was enough to make him appreciate it.

It was astounding, really. Domes and glass (actually super-enforced material mined from a distant planet), as well as a back-up system he'd heard much about; an outer metal shell that would push itself outward to protect the ship when the command was issued.

He found something that seemed like a lounge. There were different alien-species; the crystal-looking beings of one planet, Vortians (of course), even Screw-heads.

There were no Irkens.

As such, Zim strode in, getting stares from numerous people.

He felt mildly uncomfortable, a large feat for anyone to accomplish against him. He began to squirm as the curious stares merely intensified.

Irony had struck. All of Zim's life he had been one of the mocking Irken observers, surrounding a small, weak number of other alien species; species that were considered inferior and obsolete and many different things, all of them summed up as 'less than Irken'. Even if he were unreasonably short compared to the other Irkens, he could still laugh at the lesser species that the galaxy contained.

But now, by poetic justice, Zim had became the display. The hostility in the room was scarcely veiled, and only a few looked at him merely questioningly and not hatefully. He had became the inferior, the one, the singled out. No speech supporting Irken superiority would be heard in this room.

As such, he was quite relieved when Lard Nar came into the lounge, proclaiming that he'd found a quite-odd creature called an Earthling. Unlike the hostile gestures Zim had received, Dib was met with curious gazes and an enamored look from a Transtian crystal-being. Snippets of conversation from Lard Nar to Dib were heard; "Yes, we have multiple headquarters like this one! Our main one is near..." and "Oh, how interesting," little polite replies. Someone commented on his hair, and he laughed, leading to yet another discussion.

"This trip is stupid," Zim muttered bitterly.


End file.
